Oiapoque

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Oiapoque, the far North city of Brazil, border with Saint George of French Guyana, this time we went to Belem to visit my friend first, Gustavo Geiser, also known as Gibao, we were going together for this trip.
First of all we went to Macapá, the capital of Amapá state, to visit Gibao's friend, his friend will borrow us a car, then we will go to Oiapoque by car. Macapá is crossed by Equator, also located at side of Amazonas river, we had a lunch looking to the river. We made a quickly city tour, then we went to a farm to explore a swim pool in the middle of the jungle.
On the path to Oiapoque, we found a abandoned military base, that was a American base, they made it in the World War II, it was a base to supply army preparing to attack Europe, Brazil wasn't battling directly but was a partner, almost symbolic partner. Not too far from the base, there was a waterfall, it wasn't big but very beautiful with a strong water to have a lot of fun. The way to Oiapoque is too far to make in one day, so we stayed a night in Calçoene.
Calçoene, there was a archaeological place, some shaped stones there forming a kind of circle, probably used to astronomy, because those stones' positions matched with celestial moments, like the solstice. Leaving Calçoene going to Oiapoque, the road is only clay road now, our speedy couldn't increase too but, just advancing a little by a little, enjoying the scene and jungle's view, we also visited a gold mine on the way, Lourenço city, that was the first time I saw a place like that personally, Gibao said that one is very organized, because he have been in some mines before. The whole process to extract the golds was get and break the rocks, filter the bigger ones, then use mercury to get the gold powder making the amalgam, and burn it later to evaporate the mercury, very interesting. Finally we reached Oiapoque in the end of the day, driving on clay road at night wasn't easy at all.
Oiapoque, a small but very international city, because of French Guyana, European can go to Brazil easily by that route, specially French, so you can buy stuff there using EURO, and also so many people can speak French there. The board was made by Oiapoque river, that was where the city name came from. A lot of places there need a boat to reach, some restaurants on the water, a wonderful waterfall going into the land, there were a lot of people living after waterfall, and the transportation is tortuous, a boat brought the people to waterfall, they cross the place walking, then another boat above the waterfall to take the people going deeper into the land. There are some military base from both sides of the river, Brazilian and French, and we visited both, though the French side was nobody there, that seems a abandoned base.
Saint Georges Del Oyapock, a border city from French Guyana, we can go there without visa, Brazilian can't go to French Guyana from Oiapoque, even Brazilian can go to France without visa, it just to avoid anyone can go to Europe by land. Saint Georges is a very small city, but it didn't lose the French charm. We went to a little church there at night, the most interesting thing there was the songs in 3 or 4 languages, French, Creole, Taki-Taki and another one I don't remember, after the church we had a dinner in a little restaurant there, French dishes , elegant and delicious, very nice, I tasted the famous French cuisine that I hadn't in France. Going back to hotel, we stopped in the middle of the road, there was a North way party, people dancing under the "Tecno Brega" music, "Tecno Brega" is a Techno music with the sex lyrics.
North of Brazil is very different, like Gibao said, that is out of Brazil, but very interesting by the nature resource and culture, I also felt the people there are very friendly.

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Comments

[anonymous]

Uaaau, que demais... so cool!! Oh How I wish I coul travel like this, uma vez eu li um livro que falava da busca por minas e diamantes e os caras viajavam assim por essas terras estranhas do Brasil e fronteiras... não sei explicar, mas esses lugares exercem um fascínio enorme sobre quem vê....